Israel Attacks Unarmed Aid Convoy in International Waters
Multiple sources are reporting that Israeli commandos have attacked and killed several members of The Free Gaza Movement on board a ship in international waters. This ship was part of a “Freedom Flotilla” bringing aid and reconstruction supplies to Gaza. This was the 9th such mission by FGM, five of the previous missions were successful, but the last three had been violently blocked by the Israeli Navy. This is the first such mission involving fatalities. At no point in their journey do the Freedom Flotilla’s ships enter Israeli territorial waters, making the attack a blatant violation of international waters. Israel claims to have spotted weapons on board, a fact FGM claims to have video disputing. According to FGM sources Israeli commandoes dropped onto the ship by helicopter and proceeded to fire into a group of unarmed civilians sleeping on the deck.
The details of this attack are still unclear. There are conflicting reports on the number of casualties and none of the video has been released confirming or refuting either version of events. My suspicions are, however, that the FGM is telling the truth. Israel has been engaged in systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians for years, if not decades, and has no problem with blatant violation of international laws. I do hope that this event will help to convince the international community, especially the U.S. government to take a harder line with Israel. I think that at this point it is abundantly clear that the Israeli government has no intention of ever allowing a true Palestinian state to emerge and is content to slowly decimate the population until they give up or die.
Freedom Flotilla Attacked by Israeli Navy, Deaths Reported - Bryan Farrell, Waging Nonviolence
Freedom Flotilla Sets Sail to Interrupt “Discourse of Power” Controlling Palestinian Future – Bryan Farrell, Waging Nonviolence
Civilians Under Attack by Israel – Free Gaza Movement Press Release
A Force More Powerful – Ewa Jasiewicz, Common Dreams
The Israel Attacks Unarmed Aid Convoy in International Waters by Stephen DeWitt, OFM, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Comments